September to Remember

The last eight weeks or so were very busy in the chocolate shop. Lots of chocolate from six different origins were made and delivered. It’s been an exciting time for Tejas Chocolate.

We had the nicest compliment recently from one our early chocolate followers. She tasted our chocolate for the first time in about six months and noticed that our chocolate is better on many levels. We felt that way ourselves, but its extra nice to hear that honest comment from someone else.

As of this post we are currently making chocolate from the cacao growing origins of: Bolivia, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Madagascar, and Venezuela. You would never confuse one origin with the other in the finished chocolate. Each are so unique and distinguishable. I’m asked all the time about my favorite and that is an impossible question to answer. I love them all for their own character. If I happened to conduct a formal poll or survey from all our friends, the results would be too close to call. Perhaps one of the most interesting things we’ve learned in this chocolate making endeavor is the vast range of people’s personal tastes.

Next on the cacao origin deck is a Belize. We recently got connected with a farming co-op that takes the harvest of many small family farms to a centralized post harvest handling facility. The co-op has made many improvements to the fermentation and drying steps to the benefit of these small family farms. All the families are of Mayan decent and they grow cacao in a region were Mayan’s first began to reveal the magic of cacao. These families are experiencing the benefits of a responsible co-op that is helping them produce premium cocoa beans for the American craft chocolate market. It’s a really nice story of pooling resources for the gain of the group. Our first shipment of cocoa beans from the Mayan Mountains arrives next week. It’s an exciting time as we discover what surprises a new origin of cacao brings to us.

We’ve also been trying to upgrade the shopping experience on our web site. Now that things are cool enough in Texas to feel safe shipping chocolate our goal is to make buying chocolate from us as simple, secure, and enjoyable as possible.

Anyways, a new post here was long over due. There was good reason for that. We shall try to keep all friends current on what’s taking place at your chocolate shop.